Finishing Songs with Focus

Finishing Songs with Focus

That thing that needs your attention right now, you know the thing that’s on fire, it’s more likely a distraction from what you really want or need to get done.
Same thing with all the notifications on your phone and computer.
With all the distractions that can set you off course, it’s important to have focus in order to finish your songs. If you’ve ever listened to Entrepreneur’s on Fire, you’ve probably heard John’s acronym for FOCUS, Follow One Course Until Success. What does that look like?

Know What You’re Focusing On

If you don’t know what you’re focusing on then you can’t even start. Be as specific as you need to be in order to help complete the task. If you want to finish “Song C” and are just getting started, it may be helpful to have a more specific focus than “finish Song C”. Finish the chorus of “Song C” might be more useful.

Determine What’s Necessary and What’s Not

Your focus could be to get through all the blogs you follow. During those times, you have to decide not only if an article looks interesting, but also if it is or will be a useful thing to read. In order to stay focused and keep your bigger goals moving you can free up time by skipping the interesting but unnecessary articles.

Sometimes you might have to create a “not to do” list. These are tasks that you are regularly doing now but are not going to do to keep your focus. This might look like not playing any live shows in order to finish an album, or not posting on a blog in order to finish a book you’re writing.

Eliminate Distractions

When you sit down to focus stay away from social media, unless that is your focus. Turn off your phone, or at least turn off notifications. Even get away from people if that helps. It’s hard to focus when there are so many distractions so get rid of as many as you can.

If you feel like you don’t have time, focus can help you free up. It helps you get the most out of your creative time so you can finish your songs.

 

Social media is a giant distraction to the ultimate aim, which is honing your craft as a songwriter. There are people who are exceptional at it, however, and if you can do both things, then that’s fantastic, but if you are a writer, the time is better spent on a clever lyric than a clever tweet.

– Bryan Adams